An open letter to John Dayal

AN OPEN LETTER TO JOHN DAYALFROM P.N.BENJAMIN,Coordinator, Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD)Dear Mr. Dayal,This has reference to your recent letter to the Honourable Prime Minister on the National Integration Council.I would like to as you some genuine questions on the subject. Most of them are questioning your own integrity. So, do not get perturbed or try to evade answers. You are first of all no Holy Joe, Mr. Dayal.Can one have integration without integrity? Where is your integrity? What is integrity of the people like you who talk about it, but keep quiet when everywhere the essence of integration is being deliberately destroyed by vested interests? Are you really interested in integration? And is integration only to be between Muslims, Christians and Dalits whom you have been using as cannon fodder for long for your vested interests, to occupy cushy positions as member of NCM and the like? Or should integration be widened to bring the whole of our neglected, despised India into the mainstream of the nation?s activities, its hopes and its dreams?Hindu-bashing, especially RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal bashing, seems to be your only hobby. This business has been bringing you millions of dollars and invitations to umpteen seminars and consultations in Western countries. How can such a despicable character talk of national ?integration? when your personal integrity itself is under cloud?Have you ever bothered about the hungry people with hunger pangs growing in their intestines when you enjoy your life in five-star surroundings and shed copious crocodile tears for the minority communities and Dalits? What is the use of talking about integration when the hungry cannot partake at your dinner table? Will you answer these questions, Mr. Dayal, here and now?A struggle can be likened to an onion. You take it off layer by layer and sometimes you cry. This is the situation in India, the India of the poor, which is in ferment, stirring itself to challenge the chains of bondage that have seared their very souls over the years. They are fighting the carpetbaggers and the charlatans, like you, of this country.Without integrity, without a deep and abiding commitment to the poor of the country, all talk of national integration is only a lot of bullshit.We are passing through a crisis of unprecedented dimensions, symbolized by the collapse of values. Self-styled Christian leaders like you have emerged bereft of principles. Our national life has been polluted by the venality of the discredited men like you. You have therefore no moral right to talk of ?national integration?.P.N.BENJAMINCoordinatorBangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue(BIRD)B-1, Lan Castle186 Wheeler Road ExtnBangalore 560 084INDIA31 August 2005